Rick Clevelandhttp://northsidesun.com/taxonomy/term/191/0
enLuck usually plays a parthttp://northsidesun.com/opinion-columns/luck-usually-plays-part
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://northsidesun.com/sites/northsidesun.com/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Rick%20Cleveland%20writer_53.jpg?itok=mAxQG5oZ" width="576" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>Don’t know how many times I’ve been asked this lately but it’s a lot: Where does Clinton’s Cam Akers rank among the high school football players you’ve seen play in Mississippi?</p>
<p>I saw Walter Payton, Marcus Dupree, Steve McNair, Deuce McAllister, Jarious Norwood, Dontae Walker and so many more.</p>
<p>Until last Friday night’s State Class 6A Championship game, I’ve contended simply that Akers is as good as any I’ve ever seen. That he belongs in the first sentence of any discussion about the best player in the history of Mississippi high school football.</p>
<p>After Akers accounted for all seven touchdowns in the Arrows’ 49-35 victory, he changed my mind. He’s the best these eyes have seen. Nobody else could do what Akers did against a fast, well-coached Pearl defense that had given up 22 points in three previous playoff victories.</p>
<p>Akers ran for 217 yards and passed for 228. He also was outstanding at cornerback on defense. Don’t know what was more impressive: his sheer speed or his power. Probably, it was the combination of the two.</p>
<p>Invariably, people will counter: “But what about Marcus Dupree? He was fast and he was powerful, and he was a lot bigger than Akers. Willie Morris even wrote a book about him.”</p>
<p>And that’s all true, but with Akers, you also have his arm, his passing ability. On the last play of the first half, Akers, while running to his right, flicked a perfectly thrown 45-yard strike to hit a receiver on the run for a touchdown. It was simply an astonishing display. And although it seems set that Akers will play running back in college, don’t ever think he couldn’t play quarterback, especially for someone running a spread offense. He definitely could.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>But what about Steve McNair, you say? Steve could run with power and speed and he could throw, as well. Yes, he surely could, but at Mount Olive High, Steve played against small school competition. Akers has done what he does against the best of the best. His statistics for his senior season read like something out a superhero comic book: 3,128 passing yards and 31 touchdowns with 2,105 rushing yards and 34 rushing touchdowns. He also had an interception return for a touchdown. That’s 66 touchdowns in one season if you are keeping score, and that’s what we do in football.</p>
<p>We can only imagine what Akers will do next.</p>
<p>Important to remember: Nothing is assured. Dupree, supremely talented, went off track and then fell victim to a horrible knee injury. Norwood and Walker never became the NFL superstars most would have predicted. Much will depend on Akers’ persistence, his work ethic and, then, just plain luck.</p>
<p>Every indication is that Akers has all the intangibles necessary to become truly elite at the next levels. Also important to remember: At similar stages of their careers, Walter Payton and Jerry Rice were virtually unknown. They weren’t the biggest, the fastest or most gifted coming out of high school. Payton chose Jackson State over Kansas State. Rice chose Mississippi Valley over the other SWAC schools. Both those Mississippi legends became NFL all-time greats as much because of their will and work ethic as much as anything else. Will Akers possess all that?</p>
<p>His coaches marvel at Akers’ will, as much as anything else.</p>
<p>“When Cam makes up his mind to do something, he’s just going to do it,” Clinton coach Jud Boswell said. “Nobody is gonna stop him.”</p>
<p>Next? He’ll play for the good guys in the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star game Saturday at Montgomery.</p>
<p>Beyond that? He’s got a huge decision to make and he can choose from among any school in the country.</p>
<p>Don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to watch...</p>
<p>Rick Cleveland (<a href="mailto:rcleveland@mississippitoday.org">rcleveland@mississippitoday.org</a>) is a Jackson-based syndicated columnist.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-section field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/opinion"><span>Opinion</span></a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/columns"><span>Columns</span></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-event-calendar-date field-type-datetime field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">Thursday, December 8, 2016 - 15:15</span></div></div></div>Thu, 08 Dec 2016 21:15:29 +0000wmccain3331 at http://northsidesun.comNo place like homehttp://northsidesun.com/opinion-columns/no-place-home
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://northsidesun.com/sites/northsidesun.com/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Rick%20Cleveland%20writer_52.jpg?itok=GDqZI8W3" width="576" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>The late, immeasurably great Boo Ferriss could have become a major league manager had he chosen that path. With his people skills and his baseball acumen, he surely would have been a splendid one.</p>
<p>He definitely could have moved on from Delta State to the University of Texas and one of the elite college baseball programs in the country. In 1965, Darrell Royal offered him the Texas job, invited him to Austin, wined him and dined him for three days and thought for sure he had him. Even then, Texas was a national baseball powerhouse. Ferriss would have made more money for less work. At Delta State, he was also the athletic director and oversaw all the sports programs (and sometimes did the baseball laundry). At Texas, he would have been concerned with coaching baseball only.</p>
<p>I mean, how do you turn down the prestigious and sprawling University of Texas to remain at what was then tiny Delta State College? Nine years ago, when we were working on his biography, I asked Ferriss just that.</p>
<p>“The home ties were just too strong,” Ferriss said. “...We had built us a new baseball field. My mother was just a few miles down the road in Shaw. I was greatly honored to have the Texas opportunity. I’ll never forget that when I came back home, I went out and walked around the field, and that’s when I decided I wasn’t going to leave. I’ve never had any regrets.</p>
<p>“Looking back, I think a lot of it was that I had already had a taste of the big-time, a lot bigger than Texas, in Boston. I didn’t need it for my ego or anything. In the end, home won out. I guess I had too much of that Delta mud between my toes.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>•••</p>
<p>But there were times, in the early 1960s, when Boo Ferriss wondered if he had done the right thing in leaving his beloved Boston Red Sox and Fenway Park, where he was the pitching coach, for Cleveland and Delta State. At DSC, he had to carve a baseball field out of a bean field. He had no assistants. He had no scholarships.</p>
<p>But he had made the move because he had two young children and traveling America every spring and summer and into fall was not his idea of the proper way to raise a family.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, at Fenway Park, there had been a clubhouse boy and an equipment manager to take care of the dirty work. At Delta State, Boo, with his wife Miriam’s help, washed all the socks, jocks and dirty uniforms. At Fenway Park, the field was kept perfectly manicured by a grounds crew. At Delta State, Boo and his players were the grounds crew.</p>
<p>Then there was the talent difference. In Boston, he was pitching BP to Ted Williams. At Delta State, he was teaching volunteer players how to play the game.</p>
<p>The Red Sox offered him his old job back for more money. He declined. The Minnesota Twins and his old teammate Sam Mele offered him the pitching coach’s job there for big money in 1962. These were the Twins of Harmon Killebrew and Jim Kaat. They were challenging the New York Yankees for American League supremacy. Mele offered him more responsibilities, a clear path to a Major League managerial job. Ferriss accepted the job and then immediately had second thoughts.</p>
<p>He slept on it, restlessly, for two nights, then went in and asked for his old job back at DSC. Of course, he got it. “I had to call Sam Mele back and tell him; that was hard,” Ferriss said. Mele hired Johnny Sain.</p>
<p>How many people would turn down the Boston Red Sox, the Minnesota Twins and the University of Texas to stay at Delta State College?</p>
<p>One: David Meadow “Boo” Ferriss, was buried in his hometown of Shaw, still with that beloved Delta mud between his toes.</p>
<p>Rick Cleveland (<a href="mailto:rcleveland@mississippitoday.org">rcleveland@mississippitoday.org</a>) is a Jackson-based syndicated columnist and author of “Boo: A life in baseball, well lived.”</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-section field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/opinion"><span>Opinion</span></a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/columns"><span>Columns</span></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-event-calendar-date field-type-datetime field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">Wednesday, November 30, 2016 - 17:30</span></div></div></div>Wed, 30 Nov 2016 23:23:56 +0000wmccain3296 at http://northsidesun.comWhat’s in a nicknamehttp://northsidesun.com/opinion-columns/what%E2%80%99s-nickname
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://northsidesun.com/sites/northsidesun.com/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Rick%20Cleveland%20writer_51.jpg?itok=RBlrgd0F" width="576" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>It seemed a prank when the news first flashed on Twitter: The New Orleans Class AAA baseball franchise has changed its nickname to Baby Cakes.</p>
<p>You laugh, but this is no joke: The New Orleans Baby Cakes.</p>
<p>From the new New Orleans Baby Cakes website, cakesbaseball.com:</p>
<p>Baby Cakes was selected from a group of seven finalists following an online “Name the Team” contest, with more than 3,000 submissions … “Our goal was to give the baseball fans of New Orleans a team and identity they can call their own,” said Baby Cakes President Lou Schwechheimer. “New Orleans is full of traditions woven into the fabric of the city, and this new tradition will be something local and iconic and celebrate what makes New Orleans and Minor League Baseball so great: family and fun.”</p>
<p>Baby Cakes? A New Orleans tradition? Do tell. King Cakes are definitely a New Orleans tradition. Beignets are a New Orleans tradition. Hurricanes (the drink, and the storm) are New Orleans traditions. Come to think of it, hangovers are a New Orleans tradition. Muffulettas – Muffs for short? – are a New Orleans tradition. Jazz is a New Orleans tradition. Unfortunately, Utah, perhaps the least jazzy place on the planet, stole that one when the New Orleans NBA team double-dribbled its way out to Salt Lake City.</p>
<p>You ask me, the Utah Jazz are the ones who should hold a nickname contest.</p>
<p>Baby Cakes? Betty Crocker has a recipe for Baby Cakes. I googled it. The photo looks suspiciously like cupcakes. There is no mention of New Orleans.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, I love the idea of a unique nickname. Where Delta State is concerned, I prefer Fighting Okra to Statesmen. Okra don’t fight, you say? What the heck. Statesmen don’t play ball, either. And don’t get me started on Lady Statesmen. If they weren’t always so good, you’d swear they must have an identity crisis.</p>
<p>Mississippi is a state filled with unique sports nicknames. Yes, we have our share of Lions and Tigers and Bears, but we have some real doozies, too. My favorite of all time: The St. Stanislaus Rock-a-Chaws, located in lovely Bay St. Louis just across Beach Road from the Gulf of Mexico. The Rock-a-Chaws have successfully competed in many sports for decades. But, still, you ask, Rock-a-Chaw?</p>
<p>The word comes from a Choctaw word meaning devil grass. A rock-a-chaw is a prickly burr that grows prolifically in the sandy soil along the Gulf Coast. Step on one bare-footed and you will know it – and you will not holler “Rock-a-Chaw!”</p>
<p>The nickname goes all the way back a full century, to 1916. Brother Macarius Pierce, a school principal with an obvious sense of humor and a way with words, came up with the name. He also wrote an ode to his Rock-a-Chaws: “What are they? Tis my task to tell: They’ve got the meanness of devils from hell. They’re the most consistent, persistent pest, that puts a man’s patience to the test. They lie in wait with fiendish glee, for the innocent hand or foot or knee. And they stick with an affection denying all laws. The rancorous, cantankerous Rock-a-Chaws!”</p>
<p>Now, that’s a nickname.</p>
<p>And then there are the East Union Urchins, once known as the East Union Epic Urchins, the E.U.E.U.s, as it were. (The girls teams are, naturally, the Urchinettes.) Look up urchin in the dictionary you first find: “A playful or mischievous youngster; a scamp.” Some of the East Union Urchins might have been just that, but you’ll have to read that elsewhere – or get it from their parents.</p>
<p>The East Union Urchins apparently are a play on sea urchins. The school mascot is a seahorse, which is where a science teacher should have intervened. A real, live sea urchin is a small, globular, prickly creature that looks absolutely nothing like a seahorse.</p>
<p>But why quibble? Makes at least as much sense as the New Orleans Baby Cakes.</p>
<p>Rick Cleveland (<a href="mailto:rcleveland@mississippitoday.org">rcleveland@mississippitoday.org</a>) is a syndicated columnist, whose columns appear here weekly. You can read his daily columns online at mississippitoday.org.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-section field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/opinion"><span>Opinion</span></a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/columns"><span>Columns</span></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-event-calendar-date field-type-datetime field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">Tuesday, November 22, 2016 - 09:45</span></div></div></div>Tue, 22 Nov 2016 15:42:24 +0000wmccain3259 at http://northsidesun.comThe power of the “it” factorhttp://northsidesun.com/opinion-columns/power-%E2%80%9Cit%E2%80%9D-factor
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://northsidesun.com/sites/northsidesun.com/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Rick%20Cleveland%20writer_50.jpg?itok=Iie8SBil" width="576" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>You start a true freshman quarterback in college football, you can only guess what you will get.</p>
<p>Ole Miss and Southern Miss both did it last Saturday with decidedly mixed results:</p>
<p>• For Ole Miss, five-star recruit Shea Patterson completed 25 of 42 passes for 338 yards and two touchdowns in a 29-28 victory over Texas A&amp;M at College Station. Patterson directed four second-half scoring drives and helped the Rebels overcome a nine-point fourth quarter deficit.</p>
<p>• For Southern Miss, three-star recruit Keon Howard completed 12 of 24 passes for 230 yards and a touchdown and ran for 98 yards and a touchdown in his debut. But, Howard lost four fumbles and threw an interception, leading to 28 points in Old Dominion’s 51-35 victory over USM.</p>
<p>Both Patterson and Howard made their college football debuts on the road in their team’s 10th game of the season because of injuries to accomplished senior quarterbacks.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Patterson is 19 years old, Howard 18. Compare that to the most famous quarterback in Mississippi history who played as a true freshman. Brett Favre was 17 years young on September 19, 1987, when he first played for Southern Miss. The story is worth re-telling.</p>
<p>Favre had begun the fall training camp as the sixth-string quarterback on a roster with six quarterbacks. He was a last-day recruit, signed only after USM lost a committed quarterback to Alabama. The thinking was that Favre was a big, strong kid who could play safety or perhaps linebacker if he didn’t pan out at quarterback.</p>
<p>USM opened at Alabama and got hammered 38-6. Favre did not get off the bench.</p>
<p>In fact, Favre assumed that he was going to sit out that freshman season. USM had an open date the week following Alabama before a home game with Tulane. Jim Carmody, the Golden Eagles’ head coach, couldn’t help noticing Favre’s phenomenally strong arm. For the first time in his long football life, Carmody later said, he “heard” passes.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Favre didn’t expect to play that day against Tulane. He and his roommate Chris Ryals spent the night before the game drinking copious amounts of beer. Legend has it when Favre took the field that hot, muggy day, he promptly went to the sidelines and threw up.</p>
<p>Things were not going at all well for USM, who trailed Tulane by 10 points in the third quarter when Carmody decided he had nothing to lose (except a year of eligibility for Favre) by putting the 17-year-old in the game with 5:49 left in the third quarter.</p>
<p>Favre’s first pass was a short route to wide receiver Chris McGee. It was a fastball, which was really the only pitch Favre knew how to throw at that point in his career. The ball sort of embedded in McGee’s gut.</p>
<p>The crowd, which had been booing, came alive. Favre kept throwing darts. USM kept moving the ball and scoring touchdowns. The end result: a 31-24 victory over a good Mack Brown-coached Tulane team that defeated Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Virginia Tech and Iowa State that season.</p>
<p>Favre made his first start the next week against Jackie Sherrill and Texas A&amp;M in Jackson. The Aggies won 27-14 but Favre played well. The job was his.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>But here’s what we need to remember about freshman quarterbacks. As great at Favre became – which quite obviously was one of the greatest in history of the sport – he was hit and miss as a true freshman. He completed only 41 percent of his passes. Yes, he threw 15 touchdowns, but he also threw 13 interceptions. USM averaged all of 6.5 yards per Favre passing attempt in 1987. When USM defeated Jackson State 17-7 in the first meeting ever between the two schools, Alrick Young, whom Favre had replaced as a starter, came off the bench to help the Eagles win.</p>
<p>More than anything else, Favre showed in 1987 he had the “it” factor, that intangible that great quarterbacks must have and can’t be taught.</p>
<p>Interestingly, that’s what Hugh Freeze talked about Saturday night after Patterson’s performance against Texas A &amp; M. “I’ve known all along he had that ‘it’ quality about him,” Freeze said.</p>
<p>“It” could take him a long way. “It” did Favre.</p>
<p>Rick Cleveland (<a href="mailto:rcleveland@mississippitoday.org">rcleveland@mississippitoday.org</a>) is a Jackson based syndicated columnist.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-section field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/opinion"><span>Opinion</span></a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/columns"><span>Columns</span></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-event-calendar-date field-type-datetime field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">Friday, November 18, 2016 - 11:15</span></div></div></div>Fri, 18 Nov 2016 17:17:43 +0000wmccain3231 at http://northsidesun.comSaints may still have hopehttp://northsidesun.com/opinion-columns/saints-may-still-have-hope
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://northsidesun.com/sites/northsidesun.com/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Rick%20Cleveland%20writer_49.jpg?itok=uALlNMib" width="576" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>It appears many of us wrote the 2016 New Orleans Saints obituary a tad too soon.</p>
<p>Losers of three of their first four games, the Saints have won three of their last four and stand at an even 4-4 headed into the second half of the NFL season.</p>
<p>Those four victories, step by step, have moved the Saints off the DOA list, onto life support, to critical condition, and now alive and well.</p>
<p>To be exact, they are just one and a half games behind the NFC South Division-leading Atlanta Falcons. They still have serious cases of defensive maladies, but they have a Hall of Fame quarterback, Drew Brees, who gives them a chance for long-term survival.</p>
<p>Two ways to look at this:</p>
<p>• One, the Saints keep getting key injured players back and of their eight remaining games, five will be against teams with losing records.</p>
<p>• Two, the Saints are a mediocre team in a league filled with mediocrity. Of 32 NFL teams, 21 have records within one game of .500. The New England Patriots are the only team that has lost fewer than two games. Twenty-eight of 32 teams have lost three games or more. In the NFL, parity is a fact.</p>
<p>Either way, the Saints have won their way back into the playoff hunt. They easily could be in even better shape. The Saints lost one game by a single point, another by three and still another by six.</p>
<p>It would be silly to put too much emphasis on what the Saints achieved this past Sunday, winning big on the road against the San Francisco 49ers. After all, the Niners might just be the league’s worst team. After an opening day victory, the Niners have lost seven straight, and six of those have been by double digits. And still, the 49ers put up a season-high 486 yards against the porous Saints defense.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Other than Brees, here’s what should give Saints fans the most hope: The defense should improve now that cornerback Delvin Breaux, easily their best pass defender, and first-round draft choice, Sheldon Rankins, are back. Rankins, an explosive tackle out of Louisville, came off the bench Sunday but should give the Saints an improved push up front once he acclimates to the NFL’s faster pace. Breaux is an upgrade, period, a cover guy with all-league skills.</p>
<p>The Saints can only hope that Rankins advances at nearly the pace second round draft choice Michael Thomas has. Were it not for Dak Prescott, Thomas would be a leading candidate for Rookie of the Year. Long and fast and with dependable hands, Thomas has become Brees’ go-to guy with a team-leading 47 catches, including five for touchdowns. He will only get better.</p>
<p>That said, the Saints remain Brees’ team. The receivers change from year to year and so do the people blocking for him, but Brees keeps on dealing. He remains as accurate a passer as anyone who has played the sport. This season, he ranks second in the league in passing, behind only the Falcons’ Matt Ryan, completing 69.7 percent of his throws for 336 yards per game.</p>
<p>Remember when we wondered how Brees would do without All-Pro tight end Jimmy Graham who was dealt to the Seattle Seahawks to clear salary cap room? Well, he found Ben Watson for 74 catches last year. (Graham caught 48 for Seattle.) Now, Watson has gone to Baltimore and Coby Fleener and Josh Hill have combined for 36 catches.</p>
<p>Marques Colston gone? Plug in Thomas. Lance Moore gone? Plug in Willie Snead. The point is, no matter who the receivers are, the ball will be there for them. And it will be there to catch in stride.</p>
<p>Brees, at 37, still has his fastball.</p>
<p>The season’s second half begins Sunday when the Denver Broncos, defending Super Bowl champions, go to New Orleans. It is a measure of the league’s parity that the Saints, 7 and 9 a year ago and 4-4 this season, opened as a one-point favorite over the 6-3 Broncos, who have lost three of their last five since winning their first four.</p>
<p>Sunday’s game, with a noon start in the Superdome, should give us a much better reading of where the Saints stand in 2016.</p>
<p>Rick Cleveland (<a href="mailto:rcleveland@mississippitoday.org">rcleveland@mississippitoday.org</a>) is a Jackson-based syndicated columnist.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-section field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/opinion"><span>Opinion</span></a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/columns"><span>Columns</span></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-event-calendar-date field-type-datetime field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">Wednesday, November 9, 2016 - 12:15</span></div></div></div>Wed, 09 Nov 2016 18:14:32 +0000wmccain3170 at http://northsidesun.comSouthern doing well for college footballhttp://northsidesun.com/opinion-columns/southern-doing-well-college-football
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://northsidesun.com/sites/northsidesun.com/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Rick%20Cleveland%20writer_48.jpg?itok=40lPDegV" width="576" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>What to make of this Mississippi college football season? And I know what many fans, especially those of Ole Miss and Mississippi State, would answer: “Trash it. Let’s start over and do it again.”</p>
<p>Can’t do that.</p>
<p>Here we are, entering the season’s final month, and the Bulldogs and Rebels are both at 3-5, still with difficult tasks ahead. State, at 1-3 in the SEC West, is tied for fifth with Arkansas. Ole Miss, at 1-4, is seventh, all alone. It is a seven-team division.</p>
<p>Southern Miss, at 5-3, stands at second place currently in the Conference USA West, a half game behind high-scoring Louisiana Tech, and still controls its own destiny.</p>
<p>Now seems a good time for an assessment: where we are and where we are headed as the calendar enters November. Overall, Mississippi teams need victories like the Magolia State needs rain.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ole Miss (3-5, 1-4): Offensively, the Rebels have been good enough to win them all. The problem has been when the opponent has the football and Ole Miss can’t stop them. First things first: It’s not scheme. Dave Wommack, the veteran defensive coordinator, knows how to coach defense. He knows how to get his players to play hard.</p>
<p>It is a matter of talent. The Rebels are caught short on that side of the ball – up front, in the secondary and especially at linebacker. That has been exacerbated by a most unkind schedule, one that opened with Florida State and also had Alabama early. That’s two of the nation’s best five or six teams. The Rebels were competitive but not quite good enough.</p>
<p>They were salty enough to put 43 points up against Alabama’s killer defense, good enough to absolutely demolish Georgia, something nobody else has done. But Alabama scored 48 and nearly everyone else has scored a lot.</p>
<p>Remaining: 4-4 Georgia Southern, at 7-1 Texas A&amp;M, at 4-4 Vanderbilt, and 3-5 Mississippi State. The goal is to win all four; three wins earns a bowl bid. Obviously, that’s do-able. Just as obviously, it’s far from a done deal. My guess: 6-6 and the Liberty Bowl.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Mississippi State (3-5, 1-3): This time two years ago, the Bulldogs were ranked No. 1 in the nation. Now, they are 3-5 with a virtual murderer’s row (Texas A&amp;M, Alabama, Arkansas and Ole Miss) still to play. They have to win three of those four to get to a bowl. Folks, there are 128 teams in the NCAA’s FBS division. Precious few could beat three of those four.</p>
<p>Only one team, Auburn, has shredded State. The Dogs easily could have won every other game. The haunting opening loss to South Alabama was by one, LSU by three, BYU in overtime, Kentucky on a last-second field goal. The 3-5 could be 5-3 or even 6-2. But it’s not.</p>
<p>In more ways than one, we are learning just how good Dak Prescott was. That said, how much different would things look if the Bulldogs were to knock off A&amp;M this Saturday? It could happen, you know. Stranger things happen every week in college football.</p>
<p>Still, a bowl game seems a remote possibility. My guess: 4-8.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Southern Miss (5-3, 3-1): Jay Hopson’s first season can still be highly successful. The Golden Eagles are about where most would have picked them with the 5-3 overall mark. How they have gotten there is not what hardly anyone expected. The 55-32 drubbing at Texas-San Antonio sticks out like a deformed thumb.</p>
<p>On the flip side, the opening game, come-from-behind victory over Kentucky looks better and better as the season goes along and the Wildcats keep winning games.</p>
<p>The Eagles’ four remaining games: Charlotte, at Old Dominion, at North Texas, Louisiana Tech. Run the table and USM will play in the Conference USA championship game. That’s possible, but currently Tech looks like the class of the league.</p>
<p>Senior quarterback Nick Mullen has had a good season, despite new receivers and a painful thumb injury. Running back Ito Smith and defensive lineman Dylan Bradley are two of college football’s most unsung standouts – difference makers.</p>
<p>USM just needs more consistency across the board. The Eagles need to get on a roll, as they did late last year when they won their last six in the regular season. My guess: 8-4 and New Orleans Bowl.</p>
<p>Rick Cleveland (<a href="mailto:rcleveland@mississippitoday.org">rcleveland@mississippitoday.org</a>) is a Jackson-based syndicated columnist.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-section field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/opinion"><span>Opinion</span></a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/columns"><span>Columns</span></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-event-calendar-date field-type-datetime field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">Wednesday, November 2, 2016 - 14:15</span></div></div></div>Wed, 02 Nov 2016 19:10:25 +0000wmccain3127 at http://northsidesun.comCelebrity participants in past tournamentshttp://northsidesun.com/opinion-columns/celebrity-participants-past-tournaments
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="http://northsidesun.com/sites/northsidesun.com/files/styles/large/public/field/image/Rick%20Cleveland%20writer_47.jpg?itok=isnuc_3o" width="576" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>JACKSON — The Sanderson Farms Championship, Mississippi’s stop on the PGA Tour, began in Hattiesburg 48 years ago as the Magnolia State Classic.</p>
<p>It was played in May, opposite the Colonial Invitational. B.R. “Mac” McLendon, a rookie fresh out of LSU, won the first tournament he ever entered, defeating veteran pro Pete Fleming in a nine-hole playoff.</p>
<p>They actually played 45 holes that Sunday long ago, because of rains that had flooded the Hattiesburg Country Club earlier in the week. In fact, rains have been pretty much the one constant in the once humble, little tournament that has evolved into a $4.1 million annual tour stop televised around the world by the Golf Channel.</p>
<p>If the weather forecast is correct, this year’s tournament will break that muddy mold. Sunny skies, with highs in the low to mid 80s are predicted. There is no more than a 20 percent chance of rain any day. Perfect.</p>
<p>All the pro-am spots and sponsorships are sold. The field will include several former major championship winners. The CCJ course is in pristine condition. Indeed, it appears that this is the year it all comes together for the event Sports Illustrated once dubbed “the little golf tournament that could.”</p>
<p>No matter who wins the tournament, the big winner will be Mississippi charities, including Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital, which last year reaped more than $1.1 million from the event.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>What follows is a short history lesson about the tournament that has been called the Magnolia State Classic, The Deposit Guaranty Classic, the Southern Farm Bureau Classic, the Viking Classic, the True South Classic, and finally the Sanderson Farms Championship.</p>
<p>Herschel Walker is among the celebrities who will play in Wednesday’s pro-am. Back in the early days, in Hattiesburg, the pro-am was the social event of the year and attracted many stars from Hollywood and professional sports. Hattiesburg schools closed for the day and massive crowds came out for the day.</p>
<p>Clint Eastwood played there and so did Mickey Mantle. Joe DiMaggio took part, as did Glen Campbell, Phil Harris, Dizzy Dean, Charley Pride and many, many more. Clint Eastwood finally gave up and quit because of the teenyboppers who were running across the fairway and picking up his golf balls as souvenirs.</p>
<p>Ol’ Diz shot a 75 on his own ball in the pro-am, hitting a slice that started on the left tree line and usually ended up in the middle of the fairway. When a fan asked him about his slice, he laughed and said, “Podnuh, you’d slice it, too, if you had to swing around this belly.”</p>
<p>For years, we were told that Dean Martin was coming to play in the pro-am, but Dino never made it. One time, the explanation, never confirmed, was that he had been served divorce papers on the tarmac at the airport as he was about to catch the private flight to Hattiesburg.</p>
<p>Several of golf’s greatest players in history participated before they became famous: Johnny Miller and Tom Watson both played in Hattiesburg in their early 20s. The late Payne Stewart won at Hattiesburg before he started wearing knickers. Jim Gallagher, Jr. won one of the many rain-shortened events.</p>
<p>Surely one of the most popular-ever players to compete was Chi Chi Rodriguez, who wielded his putter like a sword and who made even bogeys look like fun.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>After that first Magnolia State Classic, the tournament was played opposite The Masters for the next 25 years. It has also been played opposite the British Open, the Tour Championship, the Ryder Cup, the Presidents Cup and various World Golf Championship (WGC) events. This year, it is opposite the WGC event, played in Shanghai, China, where most of the world’s top-ranked players will compete.</p>
<p>One, William McGirt, who finished second here last year and won Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament this summer, decided not to make the trip to China. Instead, he will take the week off and play here in Wednesday’s pro-am. PGA rules prohibit McGirt playing in the Sanderson if he is eligible for the WGC event. McGirt doesn’t want to fly 12 hours both ways to China and he does want to support the tournament here. So, he’ll play in the pro-am only. In the 48-year history of Mississippi’s only PGA event, that’s a first.</p>
<p>Rick Cleveland is a Jackson-based syndicated columnist. His email address is <a href="mailto:rcleveland@mississippitoday.org">rcleveland@mississippitoday.org</a>.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-section field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/opinion"><span>Opinion</span></a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/columns"><span>Columns</span></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-event-calendar-date field-type-datetime field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Date:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">Thursday, October 27, 2016 - 11:15</span></div></div></div>Thu, 27 Oct 2016 16:18:25 +0000wmccain3096 at http://northsidesun.com